Chemistry teacher who planned to fight for Islamic State jailed for six years

School shocked by 'inspirational' teacher who wanted to join ISStaff and pupils at a Bolton school were shocked when they discovered an 'inspirational' chemistry teacher wanted to join Islamic State.

Jamshed Javeed was today sentenced to six years after admitting Syria-related terror offences.

ITV News correspondent Juliet Bremner reports.

Sentencing chemistry teacher Jamshed Javeed to six years in prison for Syria-terror related offences, Judge Michael Topolski said he believed the 30-year-old presented a "potential danger" to the British public and had not rejected Islamic State's ideology.

Mr Javeed's father earlier dismissed suggestions his son was a violent extremist who posed a threat to the UK.

Jamshed Javeed appeared to be "just a normal family man" before he was radicalised and wanted to fight for Islamic State in Syria, police say.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, the head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: "He appeared to be just a normal family man with a stable family; he came from a stable background; he was a school teacher and had his own children."

Mr Mole said it appeared the chemistry teacher had become radicalised in "a fairly short period of time" after interacting with a group who were determined to fight for IS.

The father of a teacher jailed for planning to travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State says his son is not a "violent extremist" who poses a danger to the UK.

Jamshed Javeed was today jailed for six years after admitting Syria-related terror offences.

"I believe Jamshed is definitely not a violent extremist who was or is a danger to the UK," his father, Mohammad Akram Javeed, said.

"I believe that he tghought it was the right thing to do to help the Syrian people by travelling to Syria.

"I did what I could to stop him from involving himself in a complicated sectarian civil war, which has become much worse since his arrest."

The teacher's mother Yasmin Akhtar Javeed said he is "kind hearted, generous and loving" and urged the court to treat him with leniency.

Jamshed Javeed, the chemistry teacher who wanted to travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State, has been jailed for six years.

Javeed, from Manchester, was planning to travel in late 2013 after helping his younger brother make the trip.

The 30-year-old's family hid his passport in a desperate bid to stop him travelling, but he refused to change his plans even after his wife told him she was pregnant.

Javeed, who taught at Sharples School in Bolton, was arrested in December 2013 hours before he was set to leave the UK.

He admitted two terror offences, but insisted he was only travelling to support the ordinary Syrian people, not to join the terror group.

But Judge Michael Topolski said he was "not satisfied" that Javeed had rejected "Isis's ultimate aims" and handed him a six-year custodial term and an extended licence period of three years.

A teacher who was determined to fight in Syria despite desperate pleas from his family is "appalled" at the brutality shown by Islamic State, a judge has been told.

Jamshed Javeed - who is facing jail after admitting two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts - said he wanted to go and support the Syrian people in late 2013 and did not then know the truth about Islamic State.

Describing his client as a "thoughtful, studious and mild-mannered" teacher, Charles Bott QC said Javeed was "deeply moved" by images of "extreme suffering" of Syrian people at the hands of the Assad regime.

"The defendant's position is that he did something that he considered right at the time in very particular circumstances that he would not contemplate doing now," he told a sentencing hearing at Woolwich Crown Court.

He said Javeed was "appalled at the indiscriminate brutality" of IS, describing a series of videos showing the murders of Western hostages as "grotesque and barbaric".

A chemistry teacher who wanted to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State was prepared to commit "multiple acts of murder", a court has heard.

Jamshed Javeed, 30, who taught children aged 11 to 16 at a school in Bolton, last year admitted two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.

During his sentencing hearing today, prosecutor Simon Denison QC said Javeed's intended to engage in action that would have "involved the use of firearms and/or explosives" in Syria in 2013.

Mr Denison said the father-of-one was committed to engaging in "multiple acts of murder".

Javeed, from Levenshulme in Manchester, was scuppered in his attempts to travel when his family hid his clothes along with his passport.

Javeed admitted he intended to travel to join Syrian rebels in fighting against the "vicious" Assad regime, but he claims he has never supported the aims of Islamic State "as now revealed and understood".

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to last two days.